Sudhanshu Pandey: I Was Very Lucky That The First Daily Show Of My Life, Anupamaa, Became Such A Huge Hit

Sudhanshu Pandey was already popular amongst the audience, but his stint in Anupamaa brought a different kind of stardom and fanbase for him. Though it was his first TV show, he is grateful for the love he received. In a podcast with Nidhi Vasandani, he talks about TV shows and the daily grind.

On the lack of breaks in television and just how big Anupamaa eventually became, he said, "In television, you don't get breaks. I worked continuously for four years. I gave four years of my life to one show. But I think I was very lucky and very fortunate that the first daily show I did in my life, Anupamaa, became such a huge hit. It became such a massive hit that even the Ambanis were watching it, and NRIs were watching it too. There was hardly anyone who wasn't watching it."

Speaking about how massive the character of Vanraj Shah became, he said, "Vanraj Shah had become such a big character, such a huge character. People hated him, but that hatred wasn't really hatred; it was love. Because people wanted to see what he was going to do next. My effort was to make the character so unpredictable that people would constantly be worried about what he might do next. Even if he were smiling, people would feel nervous and think, 'Something is going on in his mind. 'So my goal was to shape him in that way.'

Asked about playing what many called a negative character, he said, "I don't really see it as negative. We define it as negative, but nothing is truly negative. A human being is just a human being. We ourselves, no matter what we are like inside, are very quick to label others as negative or positive. We pass judgement very quickly. There is no fixed definition of good and bad. The definition of a good person is that he does good deeds, has a good heart, and has compassion. Then we call him a good person."

"But if that compassionate person cannot adjust to one particular individual or doesn't agree with them and then falls in love with someone else, that doesn't mean he is a bad person, does it? It simply means that perhaps he isn't happy with one person, and maybe he has found happiness with someone else, with the person his heart has connected with. And when the heart connects, it isn't only the heart. Your soul connects, your emotions connect, your feelings connect. When all these things come together, then you finally say, yes, I love this person," he added.

Explaining Vanraj's psychology in more depth, he said, "That's how Vanraj was too. There are many Vanrajs in our society. You'll find people like him everywhere. Vanraj respected his parents a great deal. He loved his children immensely. Whenever he received a paycheck or a salary increment, the first thing he did was hand the cheque to Anupamaa. Why? Because he strongly believed in family values. The values given to him by his parents were very strong. His upbringing was very strong. That is why he remained stuck in a relationship with a woman he didn't even love anymore. And despite being in love with another woman, he couldn't separate from his family."

"The reason he couldn't leave was because he kept thinking, 'If I leave, my family will fall apart.' What will happen to my children? What will happen to my parents? Anupamaa takes such good care of my parents and loves them so much; what will happen to her?' All these things are very human. I feel these emotions and feelings are extremely human," he added.

Shifting to the early days of his career with the pop group Band of Boys, he said, "If I talk about stardom, the kind of stardom that Band of Boys experienced was something extraordinary. I'm talking about 2002. The kind of experience that singers like Diljit Dosanjh have today - that's what we experienced back then. When I see Diljit performing in a packed stadium, I feel that's exactly what we saw in 2002 and 2003. All the great performers today who perform in front of stadiums full of people - we experienced all of that in 2002 to 2003.

"We saw girls crying. We saw people tearing their clothes in excitement. It's not exactly a very decent example, but I'm telling you this to explain the level of madness people had for us. People even threw undergarments at us. So that's the level of fan frenzy, the level of obsession that we witnessed. I have seen a lot of stardom in my life. I have seen great heights of success," he added.

Asked what has actually changed between the two eras of stardom, Sudhanshu said, "The only difference is that today we are much more connected to people through social media. Back then, we were connected only through the media, like through magazines, or through television whenever an interview aired on a music channel or somewhere else. That was how we connected with people then. But today, we have entered each other's homes and lives so deeply through social media that it's very difficult to compare the two eras."